This invention relates to sliding door closing mechanisms and more particularly concerns a self-contained unitary package of components that may be readily attached to an existing door to effect closing thereof.
Many different types of door closing mechanisms have been developed and employed to meet a variety of requirements for self-actuated door closing operation. Such mechanisms include pneumatic devices, springs and counter-balancing apparatus. Many counter-balancing door closing mechanisms embody a weight suspended from a cord entrained over a pulley that is carried on the fixed door frame or in a wall of the cabinet in which the sliding door is mounted. In such arrangements, the line from which the weight is suspended must extend across the open doorway when the door is in its open position. Such a line is unsightly, and may interfere with use of the doorway unless rather complex and costly steps are taken to run the line internally of the door or door frame. Mechanisms of this type, whether mounted on the fixed door frame or carried on the door itself, have been mounted internally of the door frame or door. Thus, counter-balancing weight guideways have been mounted within the door frame or a cabinet wall during manufacture. However, no structures or apparatus have been available that may be applied to an existing door once it has been built or installed, to achieve a self-closing operation.
The common and widely employed sliding glass door and sliding screen door are formed of extruded aluminum frame elements which are secured to the glass or screen that complete the door. The extrusions of which these doors are made and the door frames in which such doors are installed do not readily lend themselves to application of counter-balanced closure mechanisms known in the prior art. Thus, there presently exists a vast number of such sliding doors, now installed and in operation, which would greatly benefit from a self-actuated closing mechanism but for which no such mechanism is presently available within practical economic limits.
For use of door closers of reasonably limited size and weight it is necessry to minimize the sliding friction of the door and thus a door closer kit should include low friction glides or wheels. However, if the door closer kit is arranged to be mounted upon many different types of doors, the anti-friction wheel must also be universally applicable.
Sliding door wheels and their carrying brackets are usually designed for a particular configuration of door. They require screws, bolts, or the like, both to fix the wheel and bracket to the door and to provide for vertical adjustment of the door relative to its supporting track. Such wheels and bracket assemblies of the prior art are relatively complex and costly, both to manufacture and to install.
In slidable closure members, the anti-friction elements, wheels or slides, will generally wear or become inoperable while the closure member itself is still in good condition. Thus, it is often necessary to replace such anti-friction devices. At present, many different types of sliding closures are employed and few, if any, of the anti-friction devices, such as wheel and bracket assemblies, are capable of use with more than one of such closure members. Thus, suppliers must stock many different kinds of sliding door wheels and even so, a replacement wheel that will fit a particular type of sliding closure member is often not available, or at best, difficult to locate.
Such replacement wheels in any event must be mounted and/or adjusted by means of screws, bolts, or the like, extending through the door frame, requiring tools and some skill to effect replacement or even adjustment.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a sliding door closing mechanism and an anti-friction assembly that are effective, economical and avoid or minimize problems of the prior art.